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Siitif null Jiitrrcst 3iiP!itiriil in Wjt ]>nm\ €xm. 



A SERMON 



PBEAcnED i:s 



_A.LL SOCJLS' CHUr^OH, 



ON 



SUNDAY MORNING-, APRIL 14th, 1861, 



HENRY AV. l^ELLOAYS 



NEW YORK : 
WYNKOOP, HALI.EN'BKCK & THOMAS, PRINTERS, 
No. 113 Fulton Street. 
1861. 



.1 



Biiiil mill Mtmi Stoiitirnl in tjit ^.^rfstiit (Crisis. 



A SERMON 



PBEACnED IX 



^LL SOULS' CHUIIOH, 



ON 



SUNDAY MORNING-, APRIL 14th, 1861, 



HENRY AY. BELLOWS 



NEW YORK : 
WYN'KOOP, HALLEXBECK k THOMAS, I'RINTERS, 
No. 113 FCLTON Street. 
1861. 



Sntii niiii Siitrrrst ariitirni in \\)t ^HTM'iit Crisis. 



A SERMOJSJ" 



PREACHED IX 



A.LL SOULS' CHUKCH, 



SUNDAY MORNING, APRIL 14th, 1861, 



HENRY W. JiELLOWS. 



NEW YORK : 



WYXKOOP, HALLEXBECK & THOMAS, PRIXTEUS, 
No. 113 FuLTO.v Strkkt. 



ISUl. 



61505 

'OS 






'05 






S E R M O iSr 



" Mens hearts failing them for fear, and for lookirig aftei' those things irhich 
are coming on the earth." — Li'ee xxi : 26. ** vflf 1 V 

The iutroJuction of our sacred religion was al^tended 
and followed by most distressing events. Our Lord pre- 
pared the minds and hearts of his immediate disciples for 
the perils of ease, property, and life, which ,\vej;e to dis- 
tinguish the generation that founded the Churcli, ojSenly 
predicting imiversal perplexit}' and distress', hut exhorting 
them that when all other " men's hearts were failing them 
for fear, and for lookins: after those things which were 
coming on the earth," they should " look up and lift up 
their heads," for " their redemption was drawing nigh." 

"We are so little used, in these modern times, to suf- 
fering for our principles — so little accustomed to be 
called to long and exhausting sacrifices for our religion — 
that we are all somewhat out of sympathy with those 
who, from the fust, liave done the work of pioneering the 
cause of truth, justice, and humanity in the world. The 
long period of peace and prosperity we have enjoyed has 
taught us to flatter ourselves that the time was gone by 
when men were likely again to be called on to suffer 
the spoiling of their goods, the interruption of tlieir domes- 
tic comfort, the imperilling of their fortunes, for the sake 



of any of the permanent interests of society. That was 
very well in Revolutionary times, or Puritan tunes, or 
Refomiation times, or Apostolic times ; and we have no 
praises too strong, no gratitude too deep, to convey our 
sense of the glorious merits of those who counted their 
lives not dear, and their possessions dross and dung, Mhen 
the great })rinciplcs of humanity, order, justice, piety, 
summoned them to risk all in their defense. But these are 
modern times ; times when agriculture and commerce and 
manufactures are the great interests ; times when schools 
and churches are the main bulwarks of truth and morali- 
ty, and when we are expecting to have our duty and our 
principles somehow made consistent, if not coincident, 
with our interest and prosperity ; and so, in the deepest 
^■iew, hnt only in tliat, they are. 

I desire to sj)eak with true resj)ect of the material inter- 
ests of society. The real progress ot the world depends 
very nnudi on peace and prosperous industry, and \\ ide- 
spread, because safe and rewarding, commerce. Christiani- 
ty has immensely advanced the wealth and comfort of 
society, and the riches and peace of tlu; world have repaid 
religion by muuilicent support of her cause. Jt is not 
necessarily a mean and selfish instinct which makes us so 
sensitivi! to the prospects »it' dur iiialeiial iiile\'ests. The 
hread, s;ifet\', and iKqipiness of oui- \vi\«'s and cliildren ; 
I lie ]ti ospci'ii V ol' our s( tela I, (•i\ il, and limuaiie iiisl it ut ions ; 
the sn[t)i<Ml (tf reliLiion itsell'; 1 lie snp[»l\- dl' laltor an<Mn(i<l 



to the masses of the people — all are finally dependent upon 
the undisturbed condition of trade, the sound basis of 
monetary afiairs, and the pacific prospects of the world. 
There can be no difference among sensible men as to the 
vast importance of stability in the industry and conmier- 
cial and fiscal affairs of the nation. 

Radically and truly considered, however, there is no con- 
flict between the moral interests of society and its material 
interests. "What is most for the interest of piety and virtue 
is most for the interest of trade and commerce. What 
best serves God and humanity, best serves basket and store. 
Any seeming antagonism here is not real, but due only to 
our siiortsightedness. It is proved indisjjutably that pul)!ic 
morality and piety are in the highest degree favoraljle to 
pul)lic wealth, and that tlie most moral and religious nations 
are the richest. It is with moral and spiritual truths, as it 
is with scientific and economical truths — they always seem 
to threaten disaster when they first break upon the notice 
of the world, but soon show themselves to be the guardians 
and most efficient pr()nu)ters of the real interests which it 
is predicted they are swiftly to ruin. Thus, the introduc- 
tion of machine labor was frf/i/ig to ruin the indiistrv of 
England; and the abolition ol the (*orn Laws was going to 
ruin the British landholders ; the invention of steam power 
was going to make horses of no value; the education of 
the lower classes was going to s;ow dangerous political dis- 
contents among the people ; the abolition of a religious 



cstabUs/tmciit was going to prostrate Christianity. But 
nothing of tliis happened ; for, when things are riglit in 
principle, they always work right in practice, after a little 
time ; and when things are wrong in principle, they always 
work wrong in practice, sooner or later. It is right in 
principle to economize labor, to do things in the cheapest 
and most efficient way, to let in light, to discuss all matters 
with freedom and thoroughness, to do justice, to tell the 
truth, to insist on equity, to maintain law and order, and 
uphold public rights ; and, therefore, carrying out these 
principles in trade, commerce, labor, in pohtics, morals, and 
religion, is always safe and beneficent, and favorable to 
stability ; and nothing else is. To favor imperfection, know- 
ing it to be such ; to encourage hand-labor against machine- 
labor ; to suppress intellectual and moral light, as if it were 
a foe ; to cover up known wrong; to sophisticate ourselves 
for the sake of innnediate interest — is as fatal to permanent 
well-being as it is contrary to sound })rinciple and good 
sense. 

No doubt every great ste[) forward in science, art, 
social ccouoiMV, in })oliti('s, morals, and religion, injures the 
material interest of sonu; class whose prosperity is l)uilt 
upon 1 lie superseded policy. The diseoM-ry and iuiroduc- 
lioii (if luminous gas has seriously damaged llie whaling 
interesl. l'Meiiieiilai\ ediU'alidU has become so general 
with us, ihal a class oi' pe|-s<»us who toiinerly made llieir 
livliii: liv i-eailim:- lo the illilerale ami wiiliiii: iheii' lelters, 



a class still known in some European countries, is extin- 
guishefl. The turnpike property throughout the North has 
lost all its value through the introduction of railroads. 
And every day, science, morals, religion, as they advance, 
threaten some interest hased upon past ignorance of their 
highest laws. All the gaming houses of England and 
France complained of the fonaticism which banished their 
'' once open tahles to the petty principalities of Germany ; 
while the lottery business, lately so prosperous and flourish- 
ing in this country, shrieked as it fell dead under the moral 
sentiment of our Northern States. Does any one doubt the 
vast material gain accruing to society from these steps, 
fatal as they were to special interests, which themselves 
were poisonous to the State ? 

So English emancipation in the West Indies, which, un- 
doubtedly, seriously injured the interest of the great pro- 
prietors, and diminished the exported sugar crop, it is now 
demonstrated has actually increased vastly the well-being 
of the general population of the islands, the amount of their 
products, and the moral character of the people. Being 
right in principle, it must inevitably prove right in prac- 
tice, and this was sure to appear after a fair chance was 
given to the experiment. At this moment, the total ex- 
ports of the British West Indies, excepting Jamaica, ruined 
before emancipation begun, exceed by seventy-seven mil- 
lions of poTinds of sugar those of its most prosperous 
slave-labor year, while its imports from England and Amer- 



8 

ica have advanced from S, 840,000 to 1 4,600,000, proving, 
in the most satisfactory manner, the pecmiiary advantage 
of pursuing the humane and Christian policy of emanci- 
pation. 

It is, therefore, a grand mistake to imagine that our 
duty and our interest are ever permanently at war ; or that 
we can be too just, or too humane, or too right, or too 
God-fearing for our welflire. Temporarily our advance in 
scientific, economic, political, or moral wisdom, may cost 
us some serious sacrifices ; but only to save us from far 
more permanent calamities. It is sticking to falsehoods as 
if they were truths ; adhering to policies that are l)ehind the 
age and the times ; attempting to back up blunders and mis- 
takes ; to whitewash what is black, and brazen out what 
is wrong — that causes the downfall of industries, disturbs 
trade, ruins commerce, and npsets society and government. 
Scientific, economical, moral, political, religious truths, all 
hang together. Tliere is no war among them. They su})- 
port, uphold, and illustrate each other; and it is only ci-ror, 
mistake, wrong, darkness, sin, folly, which occasion the 
disturbances that in our haste we attribute to the fanatical 
progress of truth. 

It is idle and iniscliie\<»us to think of the material and the 
moral interests of ^t\\\• own helovcd conulrN' as at war with 
each other. Xolliing iniinoial <-aM he l(n' our inleresl. 
( hir people L:cnei-all\- wish to do w hat is just and riu'ht. 
and as a rule the\- helicNc honesty the best policy, and liii- 



maiiity the best business. Tliey have grown up, certainly 
in our own section of the Land, under the conviction tliat 
the blessing of God was upon their iiuhistry, trade, and 
connuerce ; and that their Jiiaterial prosperity need not 
liinder their fidelity to conscience and their allegiance to 
the Almighty. And they are right in this faith. God is 
on the side of justice. Duty is rewarding. Conscience is 
a lamp to the feet of the wise and prudent. Now and then 
it leads to martyrdom and the loss of all that is commonly 
held dear, but its usual light falls u})on the path of safety 
and success. And when it does its exceptional work, wlien 
it kindles the faggots of the confessor and the saint, or 
consumes the hero in the heat of his own patriotic zeal, the 
flame of that sacrifice sheds a benignant illumination over 
centuries of tolerance and of security purchased at this no- 
ble rate. There can be no greater error than that which 
supposes that the great names or the iparked eras of siiller- 
ing for conscience and principle have; originated in a sub- 
lime disregard of the peace and prosperity of society. He- 
roes die at their lonely post — and one may be sacrificed 
this very day* — for a punctilio of soldierly duty ; but that 
punctilio measures the hair-l)readth that saves the natioiud 
ship from going to pieces on the rock it grazes. Saints go 
to the stake for a scruple of conscience ; but that scruple 
weighs mountains in tiie scab's of human destin\-, and the 
sufferings it exacts vindicate a policy tliat involves the in- 



* Fort Sumter and Xliijor Anokrso.v were sipposeil to bf still iiiidor llri' ;il ll 
when these words wore uttered 



10 

dependence, the self-government, the energy and spirit of 
untold generations. A nation goes to war on a preamble, 
or on some nice question of the right of visitation, or on 
some fine point of honor. Is it for purely imaginary inter- 
ests, is it for a salve to wounded sensibility, the gratification 
of passion and pride, tliat the dreadful arbitrament of war 
is invoked on such occasions ? No ! it is because it is 
rightly felt tliat the self-respect, the honor, tlie dignity of 
a nation, is at the very bottom of its prosperity — that to lose 
confidence in the countr}^, to abate loyal feeling, to weaken 
national pride, is to put at peril every interest of trade, 
commerce, and industry — is to strike at the root of stability, 
to invite foreign contempt, to drive away capital and labor, 
to dishearten and demoralize youth, to rend the foundations 
of morals and piety, and to lessen by billions the produc- 
tive powt'r and real wealth of the country. The prosperity 
of a people is based on its honest pride in their institutions, 
on its confidence in their statesmen and rulers, on the in- 
violability of its Hag, and the strength and stability of the 
[)ublic credit. Let repudiation either of oaths of oiHce or 
promises to pay, find favor in a State, and its whole people 
are suddenly struck with palsy, \\'liat a bhtw is given to 
business, when il heeonies donhti'ul whether the\eiy Afuiy 
and Xa\v of a nalinu can be trusted with the honor ol their 
own standards I What an element of demorali/alion is let 
loose, when casuistry is tiie only defence w hieh gentlemen 
have left for their staggeriug veracity ! \\'h(» will trust a 



11 

region, whore its first men have a code of honor peculiar 
to their own latitude, and a course of behavior that can be 
vindicated only from their point of view '? Right and wrong, 
truth and falsehood, honor and dishonor, are not matters of 
hititude and longitude. There is said to be honor among 
thieves, but it never stood them in much stead at the bar 
of justice, or in the money market ; and it never will. Be 
sure that public jii'osperity, business success, stability of 
fortune, repose on fidelity to world-wide principles of truth 
and right, and not on fidelity to local or sectional passions and 
prejudices, Xorth or South, East or West. 

I am addressing a commercial congregation — men who 
are the first to feel the effects of national agitation ; and 
who naturally and properly dread the suspense, the want 
of confidence, and the interruption of trade, produced by 
any temble crisis in public aff*airs. I know very well, that 
it is not a little more or less of domestic splendor, or per- 
sonal comfort, a few more hundreds or thousands in the 
strong-box ; a rise or fall of ten or even fifty per cent, in 
stocks and mortgages, that a})pals their hearts. It is the 
sickening uncertainty how they are to meet their engage- 
ments ; how in a totally changed state of things they are 
to fulfill promises made in the best faith, and to carry out 
large plans, from which there is no retreat, formed under 
other circumstances. With enonnous rents, heavy stocks 
of goods, large foreign obligations, and a sudden and wide 
stagnation of business, what but solicitude can fill their 



12 

souls ? Who can wonder at " men's hearts failing thenf 
for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming 
oil the earth"? It is an honorable, not a selfish anxiety ; 
and I wish to God I could say it were unnecessary, or like- 
ly soon to pass away. But, I beg you to remember that 
just the creditable anxiety you feel as merchants, to pre- 
serve your honor untarnished, to uphold your credit and 
meet your engagements — a feeling to whicli you would glad- 
Iv sacrifice any present convenience, or even private fortune — 
is the very same anxiety which the country or the Gov- 
ernment feels towards its own honor and credit — as the 
basis of our complete future prosperity as a people. If 
vou know that your honor and credit are the conditions of 
all vour success or hope as merchants, how much more 
must the Government or tlu?, nation know that its honor 
and credit are the conditions of our general well-bt'ing, 
and of our stal^ility and growth as a people ? You may be 
called on as a class to sufier more than any other for the 
present year or the next five years, in order that the nation, 
as a nation, may not forfeit its ability to protect yom- com- 
merce and favor vour trade for generations to come. The 
conmiei-ce and trade — not ol' this sjtring or next tali, not of 
this vcar or next vrar — hni ot'ihc iicxi hniKhrd xcars, is iin- 
prriUc(l. If (loiil)ts of I he ]»o>si!)iht \' of r('piil)licaii and dcin- 
(tcratic insl it iitioiis arc encouraged and lui-litli'il — it' radical 
siis|»ici()ii of tlicll!eo|-\- of onr ( 'oiislii iit ion is t'ostercd — it 
taiili in llic liKiioi" ol (Hir ImliIi |)iil)lic ollicci's, il' conddence 



13 



in our aniiv and navy, are destroyed abroad and at home — 
then "farewell — along farewell to all our greatness," com- 
mercial and political. We had better freely sacrifice our 
fortunes and our lives, than allow the pestilent principles 
to prevail which have already struck disgrace upon our 
character, and which, if nut stoi)pcd in their career, will 
make another ^Mexico ot our country. Your warehouses 
will indeed be converted into deserted palaces, and your 
docks into empty and sailless ditches — if the arm of the 
Goverament is not nerved with your confidence, and strung 
with the fibres of your loyalty and sympathy. 

It is our first duty to look our afi'airs directly in the face. 
They are too serious and solemn for partisan feelings or per- 
sonal interests to sway our judgment, or color our speech. 
War has been made upon the General Government by a 
conspiracy of rebellious States. I will not say that these 
States may not think themselves right in their course. I 
even dare to say that they do so — for I believe that a peo- 
ple who can persuade themselves that it is honorable, pru- 
dent, politic, necessary, democratic, or Christian, to live by 
slave labor, and that Slavery is a blessing and a divine insti- 
tution, may persuade themselves of any thing most false 
and injurious; may persuaile themselves that secession is a 
doctrine not absolutely incompatibh' with the very idt'a of 
government; that resignation on the eve of battle in a 
soldier is not e(iuivalent to desertion ; that the use of a high 
confidential public station for disarming the (lovernnu-nt 



14 

whose pa}' it receives, is a feat to be boasted of and feted ; 
and that the moral judgment of the civilized world may be 
^dctoriousiy withstood ! Allowing, therefore, perfect sin- 
cerity and the clearest conscience on the part of tlie rebel- 
lious States, now at war upon our flag — the question for us 
is, what self-preservation, what humanity, what wisdom 
an^ justice and mercy demand of us to do? I believe 
that the very foundations of order, prosperity', self-govern- 
ment, libert}', morality, and religion, are rocking to their 
ruin under the false theories and pernicious policy of the 
assailants of oiu' Government and their abettors, and that 
it is no longer a party question, or a question of expe- 
diency, but a matter of direct and most pressing necessity, 
to spring witli united hearts and detemiined hands to the 
defence of law and the maintenance of National authority. 
We have reached the point when National demoralization 
must either end, or must end us. The key-stone of all sta- 
bility, sense of security, confidence in each other, honor 
and truth, is already loosened ; and if it falls, the complete 
arch of our civil, social, ecououiic, and domestic peace and 
prosperity will be in ruins. To uphold the Goveniment — 
be it in whose hands it may — is to fix this key-stone. It 
is worth a tliousjind millions to keep it IVoiii yielding 
another liair. It is worth a hundred thousand lives To ce- 
ment it in its place. Each man of us had better give ten 
years of his renmant of davs, inid half liisfitrtune, than per- 
mit one jot or tiltie more of ilic iialioiial imlhoritv to pass 
awav. l''or ii it is successl'nlh- w iihstood and broken, (tur 



15 

property is a fiction, and our lives a spoil. Bad men are 
now on the watch to spring at our mints and vaults, our 
forts and arsenals. We know not how much we owe it to 
the vigilance of our police that violence has not already- 
polluted our own Northern streets. Our real danger will 
disappear only when the sickly doubt of our true policy, 
and the paralyzing fear of immediate losses, have passed 
from our still loyal States. When we are thoroughly and 
overwhelmingly united in our patriotism, in oiu" allegiance 
to law and order ; when we have drowned partisan 
clamors and jealousies in a common tide of devotion to 
public duty, and risen to the greatness of the emergency, 
as oneinvolving ever}' material, social, and moral interest — 
then our day of greatest peril will be over, and the con- 
test will be immediately narrowed to its smallest dimensions. 
The worst thing now to be dreaded is irresolution, timidity, 
and division. We must no longer wait for each other. If the 
Border States are in doubt, they must choose between those 
who are themselves already fully decided on both sides ot 
them, and be either the open friends or the oj^en enemies ot 
the Constitution and the Government. We have no business 
any longer to wait on their suspense. Our enemies are 
in earnest ; they are united, ami energetic, and resolved. 
They must find us equally so, or our Capital will soon be a 
foreign capital, and our Nation a slaveocracy. 

It is a sad day, my brethren, when Christian duty 
makes us militant, and denies us the blessed privilege ot 
breathing peace. It is a melancholy hour when even the 



IG 

house of God and the temple ot Christ becomes a sort of 
fortress and battle-fiekl. But I ^yish to know nothinij of 
that kind of religion which will not defend the sacred 
interests of society, with all the power, physical and moral, 
which God and nature have supplied. My own enemies I 
will loruive, and continually turn to them the other cheek ; 
but the enemies of liumanity — the enemies of all order, 
truth, and virtue — the enemies of my countr}^ I will not, 
upon any theory of peace or meekness, unresistingly suffer 
to achieve their guilty purposes, so long as there is a drop of 
blood in iny lieart, a fibre of muscle in my arm, or a note 
of warning in my voice! 

Our strife, alas! is with our brethren; but when a 
l)roth('r striki's at a mother's heart, lihal duty takes prece- 
dence of fraternal obligation. We have been forbearing, 
patient, slow to anger — most anxious for peace. But we are 
not men, nnich less Christians, if we suffer the great fabric 
of our American civilization, the gi-eat inhei'itance of our 
Constitution and Union, to lapse into ruin, fiitm intes- 
tine treachery or local passion — without a tremendous effort 
to save it. God grant us somclhiiigof that mingled "good- 
ness and severity" which ilhistrates flis own merciful 
liut \iiroi"ous gov('i-niii('iil . Sa\e us from cowardice, irre- 
sohilioii, and di\isi(tii! Direct us the shortest road to 
]H'ac(', and s]»arc us the awful necessitv of I'cbapti/.iiig our 
liberlirs in livers of bhtod — and ihc more Icniblf calamily 
of htsiiiu- f lii'iii from supinciicss, selfishness, and infidt'lity 
lo ti"nili, humanilN', conscience, and (io(L 



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